Reed entertained possible promotion rivals Knebworth Park II’s on a glorious day up at the Green, with both teams looking to assert themselves at the top of the table. Skipper Bernie Morss won the toss and elected to bat on what appeared to be a belter of a wicket. Reed’s openers made a solid start to proceedings, negotiating the new ball effectively and punishing some wayward bowling. With the score on 43, Fergus Martin appeared unlucky to be adjudged LBW for 14, when he got an inside edge on to his pad.
The wicket brought Chris Jackson to the crease, he, combined with James Heslam set about dominating Kneboworth’s attack, both playing shots all around the ground. Heslam looked in ominous form as he eased towards his third century of the season, and in doing so placed his team in a strong position to post a challenging total. Having put on 122 for the second wicket Chris Jackson was bowled for 46. Tom Fulk was next in and was a victim of trying to force the pace towards the end of the innings, falling for 8. With the score at 193-3 Phil Frenay joined Heslam in the middle. At first Frenay was content to work the single, maintaining Reed’s momentum and allowing the in-form Heslam to hit the boundaries. However by the 51st over at 264-3 when Morss called an end to the innings, Frenay had scored a brisk 29 off 25 balls and Heslam finished with a magnificent 149 not out.
Reed started brightly with the new ball, although initially without luck, as Lee Johnson (13-1-66-1) bowled Knebworth Park’s opener only for it to be called a no-ball. Johnson worked up a fair head of steam and combined with Graeme Wilson’s (12-2-57-2) excellent line and length posed a number of problems for Knebworth’s openers. Wilson made the breakthrough, inducing an outside edge which was expertly taken by Tom Fulk at second slip. Knebworth Park undaunted by this early loss continued their chase with great confidence as they put on 102 runs for the second wicket.
Richard Johnson (8-1-38-2) broke this partnership with an excellent spell of seam bowling. Skipper Bernie Morss (12-2-61-2) then got in on the action taking 2 key wickets, however Knebworth had made their way to 233-5 with plenty of overs to spare and looked favourites to claim the 30 points. However with Lee Johnson replacing Karl Ward (4-0-25-0), his spell of tight bowling swung the game back in Reeds favour. Unfortunately it was too late for Reed to force the victory and Knebworth Park finished on 258-8 off their allotted 49 overs. 18 points being a fair return for the home side in an excellent game of cricket.
